


Trouble

by Hawkogirl



Series: Snatchertown AU [7]
Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, NormalBoots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, M/M, Not RPF, Some Fluff, Songfic, based off of Trouble by Cage the Elephant, not a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 11:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20357884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkogirl/pseuds/Hawkogirl
Summary: A ghost boy thinks about old friends





	Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Please heed the tags
> 
> Here's the song this was based off-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDYTcTXtI8

He thought about them more than he should have. Well, they were his best friends way back then. But they’d been dead for years. He visited their graves regularly. He should have accepted that they were gone. 

He couldn’t.

Not when he lived in the forest the three of them met up in so often. The only memories from his life he held dear to him came from here. He couldn’t walk by certain places anymore, because he knew he would break down, he knew that the two of them would be happy and alive and probably married if he’d never told them what had happened.

But they weren’t. They were dead. Because of him.

Sometimes he wished he had told them everything when he had the chance. And sometimes he wished he’d remained as secretive as he was now. 

  
  


_ Ooh, ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh, ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh, ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh, ooh-ooh _

_ Ooh-ooh _

  
  


Fuck this shit. He needed to take a walk. He was getting to the point where he was going to cry anyway, he could visit the places always avoided.

He turned and disappeared into the trees.

  
  


_ We were at the table by the window with the view _

  
  


There was still a gaping hole in the bark of the tree, and the roots had multiple deep scars in them. He wondered if he’d killed it, trying to be a little less emotionally repressed. Funny, how feeling emotions might end in disaster while the same thing went for repressing them. He couldn’t win. 

So many trees had scarred bark, but this tree with scarred bark was special. He remembered it too clearly. A supernatural freak boy couldn’t get his emotions out in public, so he snuck off to the forest. And rotted a few trees half to death and felt worse about it then he should have.

He was lucky that it was a close friend. If it had been anyone else, or god forbid it had been  _ her,  _ his life would have quickly gotten so much worse.

So he was glad to have been collapsed on the ground, shirt off, feathery mane in full view, and the gloves off his scaled hands, fingers dug into the bark of the tree, and have only heard one of the few voices he knew and trusted.

“████?”

  
  


_ Casting shadows, the sun was pushing through _

  
  


He’d spun around, thrown his back against the tree, and stared up with tear-filled eyes at Joseph. His friend, who he might feel something more than friendship for, looking at him with nothing more than concern and surprise. 

Joseph took one look at his tear-stained face and stooped down, pulling him into a hug.

“D-don’t touch my hands.” He whimpered. God, he sounded so  _ pathetic.  _ He thought he had some sort of handle on himself, on the weird rot powers. 

Apparently, no. 

Joseph shifted them until they were side to side, and just started talking to him, one hand on his shoulder.

And secrets spilled out. 

  
  


_ Spoke a lot of words, I don't know if I spoke the truth _

  
  


He told Joseph about the complete isolation that was his childhood, the cell of the room, worn books, the crampedness. 

He told him about how he lost feeling in his hands every so often, about the claws that made his hands bleed, about how the feathers and how painful it was to keep them down.

He told him about the panic attacks that destroyed everything around him. 

He didn’t tell him about the nails that dug into his palms on a daily basis, how he barely ate in hopes of keeping  _ her  _ happy, what happened when he failed to keep her happy.

He didn’t tell Joseph he loved him.

He wished he had now, no matter how he would have reacted.

  
  


_ Got so much to lose _

_ Got so much to prove _

_ God, don't let me lose my mind _

  
  


Sometimes he’d go to the edge of town and stare at the road.

He sat in the grass and watched the occasional car drive down, illuminating the dark road. It was the road he’d driven with the pastor to enter the town, and he hadn’t left since.   
  


Picking at the grass, he contemplated his life. He knew for a fact his relationship with  _ her, it wasn’t healthy.  _ That was a fact. But at the same time, he didn’t know if not healthy was normal. 

He had been healthier, both mentally and physically as a homeless man. 

Maybe one day he’d summon the courage to leave the town in the middle of the night. He’d be alone, sure, but he’d honestly be so much safer. 

...He couldn’t give up familiarity and friendship yet. 

Maybe one day. 

  
  


_ Trouble on my left, trouble on my right _

_ I've been facing trouble almost all my life _

_ My sweet love, won't you pull me through? _

_ Everywhere I look, I catch a glimpse of you _

_ I said it was love and I did it for life (did-did it for you) _

  
  


So he went back to his apartment.  _ She  _ was asleep, as  _ she _ was when he’d left. 

The day seemed ordinary for him. Leave early to work. Use lunch break to walk around and hope he had to work overtime. Go back to work.

He spent the evening walking on eggshells, though thankfully  _ she _ wasn’t already upset with him for god knows what reason. 

The constant haze of exhaustion parted just enough for him to be able to process what  _ she _ was saying and contribute in the most minute way possible, though  _ she _ didn’t care. He doubted  _ she _ noticed. 

If he thought about it, he was just a pretty boy to show off to her friends to an uncomfortable level. She didn’t want him to contribute in any way other than making her life easier, at the cost of his own. He was economic support and a piece of jewelry.

God, he just wanted the night to come. 

Thinking was too hard.

  
  


_ We will come to pass, will I pass the test? _

  
  


The forest was more tolerable when he had someone there with him.

That applied to back when he was alive, and it applied to now. He’d give up a lot to talk to Joseph or Hope one last time.

He wanted to talk to someone who knew him back then, who didn’t just see him as the Snatcher, who knew him before he became whatever person he was.

He wanted someone.

  
  


_ You know what they say, yeah _

_ The wicked get no rest _

  
  


Joseph had said he was fine with coming and staying with him every few nights, but sometimes he wondered what the lack of sleep was doing to him. 

Was he greedy for asking his friend to stay with him?

Joseph looked at the rot powers differently than everyone else had. Joseph knew there was no way they could be completely repressed, and it was destructive if he tried to, and he wanted his control over them to improve instead.

Someone who treated him like that was honestly what he had needed back then. Hell, he still needed someone like that now. He just didn’t get what he wanted.

He could remember the conversation that turned their duo into a trio.

“ ████?” 

He looked up from the leaf slowly turning to dirt in his hand. “Hmm?”

Joseph shifted, turning to face him more. “Does ██████ know about all this?”

He hoped Joseph didn’t notice his flinch, and he laughed awkwardly. “No. No. She wouldn’t react well.” His voice was trembling. It was so obvious something was up.

Joseph frowned. “Okay. Is there anyone you’d be 100% okay with telling?”

“Who do you have in mind?”

The other paused. “Hope?

  
  


_ You can have my heart, any place, any time _

  
  


Honest to god, he was absolutely okay if he let Hope. He trusted her as much as Joseph.

But an “okay.” fell from his lips within thirty seconds.

A friendly reminder he was head over heels for Joseph.

He’d do anything for him. He wondered if there was someone in the world who felt that way about him. Probably not.

Joseph was talking animatedly, head tilted slightly, eyes half-closed and slight. It took every ounce of self-control not to lean forward just a few inches and-

No.

Don’t even think about it

He couldn’t do that to him.

Joseph and Hope had just started a relationship, and he was supposed to be in love with  _ her _ . 

He couldn’t do that to his friends by even thinking about it.

  
  


_ Got so much to lose _

_ Got so much to prove _

_ God, don't let me lose my mind _

  
  


“Care to explain why you dragged me into the woods at midnight?” Hope brushed her long light brown hair away from her glasses.

Joseph gave him an encouraging smile, and for that, he was incredibly grateful. He flashed a small, absolutely terrified smile back in his friend’s direction.

“It’s okay to freak out,” He said and pulled the glove straight off his hand.

Hope didn’t say anything. She just took his hand in both of hers, turning it over and inspecting it. 

“Your hands are like cat paws.”

He blinked. “What?”

She pushed one of his fingers upward. “Look. There’s a slit on your fingertips. Like where a cat’s claws would be sheathed into the paw.”

He fell silent for several moments as her fingers ran over his scales. “You are surprisingly calm about this. But, uh, yeah, I have claws.”

“Trust me, it’s the shock.” She responded. “I’m going to scream into my pillow in three hours.”

“...Maybe I shouldn’t show you the rot powers then.” He smiled sheepishly. Her gaze jerked upwards.

Hope held her hands, eyes closed. “The  _ what now? _ ”

He reached up, tore a leaf from the nearest tree, and held it in front of them. Hope watched in wonder as the leaf slowly turned yellow, light brown spots beginning to appear in the yellow, spreading and darkening until the leaf crumbled.

She swore under her breath. “Okay. Yep. Those are indeed rot powers. Remind me never to piss you off.”

“I wouldn’t-!”

Hope grinned and patted his hair. “I know, I know, it was a joke, don’t worry your pretty little head.”

And then there were three.

  
  


_ Trouble on my left, trouble on my right _

_ I've been facing trouble almost all my life _

_ My sweet love, won't you pull me through? _

_ Everywhere I look, I catch a glimpse of you _

_ I said it was love and I did it for life (did-did it for you) _

  
  


The three of them spent almost a year and a half in those woods together.

He got engaged to  _ her _ . Joseph got engaged to Hope.

They still met up in the woods.

And it was one of his favorite memories

Until, everything, of course, went to shit.

He remembered a lot of orange the last time he saw them. Maybe they were trying to express their support for him, in their own weird way. He appreciated it.

  
  


_ Trouble on my left, trouble on my right _

_ I've been facing trouble almost all my life _

_ My sweet love, won't you pull me through? _

_ Everywhere I look, I catch a glimpse of you _

_ I said it was love and I did it for life (did-did it for you) _

  
  


And then he died.

And then two graves appeared with the names  _ Hope Triggs _ and  _ Joseph Green _ on them.

  
  


_ Got so much to lose _

_ Got so much to prove _

_ God, don't let me lose my mind _

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a kudos maybe. and comment if you would be so kind


End file.
